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Can a Robot Get Into Japan’s Most Prestigious University?
Tokyo University’s notoriously difficult entrance exam shatters the dreams ofthousands of Japanese high school students each year. Can it also crush the hopes of Japan’s best robot scientists?
The scientists won’t be taking the test themselves. Instead, this being Japan, researchers have posed the question of whether a robot could pass the test to get into the country’s most prestigious university.
Fujitsu Ltd. is betting artificial intelligence is smart enough to make the grade for Todai — as the university is also known. In response to the challenge “Can a Robot Pass the Todai Entrance Exam”?, the electronics company said Monday that its research subsidiary, Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. will join forces with Japan’s National Institute of Informatics, to develop a robot capable of getting through the test.
The project, started last year by NII, aims to create an artificial brain that can earn “high marks” on the nationwide university entrance exam within four years. By 2021, it wants to conquer Todai’s own and arguably more demanding exam. Like many of Japan’s elite colleges, Todai requires students to take both the general university entrance exam administered by the National Center for University Entrance Examinations and its own tailored test. The combined scores determine who makes the cut.
Students cram for subjects that include world history, social studies, chemistry, physics, algebra, trigonometry and a slew of foreign languages. Fujitsu will work with NII to beef up the robot’s math skills, which is a required subject for the Todai exam regardless what department they are applying for.
The project breathes new life into the artificial intelligence debate. The end game with the Todai Robot isn’t simply to best the test. It’s to “enable anyone to easily use sophisticated mathematical analysis tools, which will lead to solutions for a wide range of real-world problems,” Fujitsu said in a statement on Monday.
Surely, in the age of supercomputers and drink-serving robots, there are machines a plenty that can compute far more complex head scratchers than quadratic functions.Fujitsu’s very own K Computer is among the world’s most potent calculating machines. Working at more than eight quadrillion calculations per second, the K supercomputer can tackle tough problems like climate change and weather patterns. But therein lies the challenge for artificial intelligence researchers. If all goes well, the Todai Robot won’t be just a good calculator. It will have learned the problem-solving skills of high school-level math.
To get there, the scientists say they will develop ways to translate the mathematical formulas as understood by humans in a way a robot can process. This would mean figuring out a way for the robot to analyze words mixed with mathematical jargon, identify parts of a formula and how they relate to each other, and teach it enough math smarts so it can solve problems. It would also mean leaving enough open-endedness to allow the robot’s artificial brain to weigh options and actually work out solutions.
The process is a compilation of many small chunks of artificial intelligence technology labored over up until now such as the ability to summarize text and analyze grammar. Fujitsu said the project’s goal is to sharpen these elemental parts, then integrate them into real-world problem-solving situations. The robot could perhaps help manufacturers examine different cost-cutting options, for example, explained a Fujitsu spokesman.
Fujitsu said the robot is currently able to solve up to 60% of the math questions on the general nationwide entrance exam. It doesn’t take a math whiz to know that’s not a good grade. And the Todai entrance exams get measurably harder, laden with more complexities to teach the robot.
Mind you, they’ve got nine years to cram.
If you think you’re smarter than any robot, take a crack at these math questions–in Japanese–from Tokyo University’s entrance exam in 2012.
Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2012/09/12/can-a-robot-get-into-japans-most-prestigious-university/?mod=google_news_blog
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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